Topic: Target balls, grenades and lightbulbs - Glass made to break

[Frank]

Another bit of weird glass use



These were made in different colours and filled with feathers. They must have left a lot of glass fragments behind after use! “NB Glass Works, Perth” is moulded around the middle. Used from about 1870 to 1900 when clay pigeons were invented. This one is a pale bluish-green, has the flat base and well moulded letters the right way up.

[Max]

I've looked at this item and can't work out how it survives!!  Surely it must be the rarest thing in the glass-world!  Where was it kept?   How is it still here??   They're can't be many left...surely?

[Frank]

Some of the rarer ones sell for several thousand dollars because of their rarity. Now and again a barrel of these turn up in a warehouse and alter the relative rarities. The Moncrieff ones usually sell around £120 €175 $230, some higher others lower. Although one recently sold for just over 50 pounds as the seller would only accept UK bidders.

They also turn up in underwater digs - because of the problems of broken glass on farm land, they were often launched over water and thus had a good survival rate if the shooter was a bad shot. A lot of Moncrieff ones were recovered by divers when the Forth rail bridge was built. In my Moncrieff article I mention another lake location in Scotland that would probably make a profitable excavation. It was where an annual target ball contest was held.

It probably says something about the glass-works owners leisure pursuits - I can easily picture John Moncrieff spending hours perfecting the design. There are some where the N.B. Glassworks embossing has some inverted letters and several variations from different moulds - I wonder what happened to the poor mould maker when the inverted letters were noticed.

[Bernard C]

Frank — I have unearthed a serious mouldmaker's error from the 1930s which I am certain was never discovered.   I only noticed when looking for something else.   I will enlighten everyone when I have some reasonable photographs to back up my anecdote.

Bernard C.  

[ian.macky]

There's another glass item I place in the same category as target balls-- fire grenades.  Ever heard of them?    Search for 'fire grenade*' on eBay, there are usually many for sale (caution, some are now reproduced).  Here's a snazzy one.  Older ones were usually filled with water or salt water, newer ones sometimes contain carbon tet, so watch out!  They were meant to be thrown at fires; the glass breaks and releases the fire-quenching agent.

Category is Glass Meant to be Destroyed.  Or maybe, Glass Ephemera?

--ian

[Ivo]

Grenades are not as rare as target balls. If you look around in France where most homes had open fires you will probably turn up a few grenades - with the original filling. They were also in use for a longer period of time.

[Frank]

Fire ever holds a fascination and fire related collectibles allways sell well.

Would folks agree this is one too http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4039&item=3971102921

I would not of thought too effective because of the thick glass and wire frame, it reminds me of the crochet covers used to convert expensive burnt out light bulbs into decorations around 1900.

[Leni]

reminds me of the crochet covers used to convert expensive burnt out light bulbs into decorations around 1900.

 :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  What??  :?:  :!:  :?:

Frank, any pics of these 'crochet covers'?  Or are you just pulling our legs?  :shock:  :roll:

Actually, I think the 'fire fighting' thingy looks like a little model hot-air ballon   :lol:

Leni

[Frank]

Being one of those collectors who loves the 'oddball' I collected lightbulbs and being a lightbulb collector that  loves the 'oddball', I collected the broken ones with covers or with new fillings such as, model villages, ships etc. Sadly all of that stuff got sold off before I got into photographing everything.

Here is a lessa elaborate one http://bulbcollector.com/gateway/Incandescent_Lamps/Carbon_Filament/1881-1900/image/c0042.jpg

There were also companies that recycled light bulbs, they cut a hole in the glass, removed the broken filament, fitted a new filament with clips, fitted a glass tube over the hole, suck out the air and then sealed the tube.

[Leni]

:shock: I'm stunned  :shock:  I have but one word to say  :shock:

WHY?  :?  :shock:  :?

The idea of repairing broken lightbulbs is logical, even though it seems strage to us today, in the 'throwaway' society in which we live  :x  But making crochet covers for spent lightbulbs?   :shock:  WHY?   :roll:

Joking apart, was there seriously a reason for the crochet covers, Frank?  :?

Leni  :shock: